Planning policy in respect of rural areas is set out in Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Notes, including TAN2 Planning and Affordable Housing and TAN6 Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities.

Community and town councils should be integral to the planning process. They should be involved by local planning authorities in the preparation of local development plans. Jointly with local planning authorities they may prepare place plans to apply adopted local development plan policies in detail to a specific area, such as a town or a village.

Local planning authorities are required to notify community and town councils of planning applications they have received. A community or town council can choose to make representations on any application to the local planning authority. The weight attached to any representation made will be determined by the planning merits of the points raised.

Gweinidog Cymunedau a Threchu Tlodi (Lesley Griffiths): The number of completions increased from 5,505 in 2010-11 to 6,170 in 2014-15. During the October to December quarter of 2015-16, a total of 1,976 new dwellings were completed, 13% more than the same quarter of 2014-15.

Lesley Griffiths:The Help to Buy – Wales scheme continues to successfully support home owners and the construction of new homes across Wales. As of 31st January 2016, three quarters of home owners supported by the scheme have been first time buyers. The second phase I announced in December, will invest up to £290 million, with a view to supporting the construction of over 6000 additional new homes by 2021.

Lesley Griffiths: Since the introduction of the scheme in January 2014 until 31st of January 2016, there have been 2,009 completed Help to Buy – Wales purchases from first time buyers under the age of 40.

Lesley Griffiths: Enable will be monitored from the start with a comprehensive monitoring and reporting performance system. There will be one core set of information covering all adaptations by all providers. The data will include feedback from the recipients of adaptations, to determine their level of satisfaction with the assistance received. This will enable us to identify opportunities to further improve services for users.

I will also be commissioning an independent evaluation of the new system during this first year, to identify what is working and what needs to be improved.

Lesley Griffiths: I would expect to see "Very Small" adaptations completed in no longer than seven days. It is more difficult to set targets for the other two categories at this stage as they may involve detailed assessments, financial contributions, structural changes and planning permission. However, we will be gathering data on delivery of all adaptations which will allow targets to be set in future.

Lesley Griffiths: The table below indicates where available for each financial year, the combined number of Mandatory Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) provided by Local Authorities to meet the needs of Council tenants, Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and Crown Properties and Physical Adaptation Grants provided by Welsh Government to Registered Social Landlords to meet the needs of RSL tenants.

Lesley Griffiths: Last year we introduced a radical reform of homelessness legislation to ensure everyone who is homeless or at risk of becoming homelessness receives the help they need to find or keep a home. Local Authorities must work with people who have been evicted, including those who are evicted for anti-social behaviour, to identify issues that need to be addressed in order they can find and retain alternative rented accommodation. Registered Social Landlords are obliged to co-operate with Local Authorities in implementing the duties under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and Local Authorities are also expected to work with private landlords to secure suitable housing solutions. The Supporting People programme can be utilised to help people who display anti-social behaviour to address their problems by providing support which improves their ability to retain a tenancy.

Increasing the supply of housing is a key priority for this Government. We have funded Rural Housing Enabler projects during this administration and I have committed up to £100,000 for 2016-17 to continue this support.

We support the development of affordable housing across Wales including rural areas through the Social Housing Grant programme and Housing Finance Grant.

Lesley Griffiths:Welsh Government provides up to £108 million every year through Major Repairs Allowance and Dowry Gap funding to social landlords to meet and maintain the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. This enables landlords to draw in an estimated £500 million of additional funding to support these improvements and jobs and training opportunities in our poorest communities.

We also provide guidance on the Standard and how it should be met, and on the development of acceptable 30 year business plans, which are analysed by us to ensure they are viable and Landlords are on track to deliver. This is underpinned by regular engagement and monitoring visits.

Lesley Griffiths: Social landlords provide annual business plans and statistical returns evidencing how they meet and maintain WHQS.

A recent requirement is for every Landlord to produce a Compliance Policy to demonstrate the achievement and maintenance of the Welsh Housing Quality Standard to us and also to their Boards and their tenants.

Lesley Griffiths: The private rented sector is playing an increasingly important part in meeting people's housing needs. The idea of introducing rent controls would require very careful consideration and is a matter for the next Government.

Lesley Griffiths: I held a consultation exercise between May and September last year to seek views on Protecting Community Assets. On 7 December 2015 I published a Written Statement on Assets of Community Value. This provides an overview of the responses to the consultation. The Written Statement can be found at:

Work in this area continues across Welsh Government, co-ordinated through the National Assets Working Group. Last week I took the decision to provide additional funding to extend a pilot project in Gwent which provides support to community groups involved in Community Asset Transfers. I believe this will provide valuable additional information for analysis about these processes from a community, Third Sector and Local Authority perspective. The Minister for Finance and Government Business has also just published a revised edition of the guidance produced last year by the National Assets Working Group, which is partly aimed as supporting community groups to take charge of assets.

Y Gweinidog Addysg a Sgiliau (Huw Lewis): As the need for a review has not been identified, this answer can only be hypothetical. Consultation plans are developed at the relevant time, and can be designed to encourage maximum participation by parents or any other parties with a particular interest. A number of methods can be considered in order to promote engagement.

Huw Lewis: When the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013 (the Act) was introduced, there was a commitment to monitor local authority performance on school organisation. It was agreed that findings arising from this monitoring would determine the need for any future review of the new legislative framework. It was acknowledged that it would be unlikely that any conclusions about the need for a review could be drawn until the system had been properly embedded and sufficient data obtained. A period of at least 3 years was identified as necessary for this purpose. The Act will have been fully in force for 3 years in October 2016. I have therefore not yet taken a view on whether a review is necessary. This will be a decision for the next Minister responsible for education.

Gweinidog yr Economi, Gwyddoniaeth a Thrafnidiaeth (Edwina Hart): This is not a further public consultation exercise. The project is now in a statutory process where stakeholders can formally object to, support or suggest alternatives to the draft Orders, or comment on the environmental information as detailed in the published material.

While the info@m4-can.com email address was set up for the purpose of addressing general queries, should anyone reply to it for the purposes of this statutory process, the project team will ensure it is forwarded to my officials to be formally registered. All correspondence received as part of this statutory process will be treated equally.

Edwina Hart: The Micro Business Loan Fund is managed by Finance Wales, which is a subsidiary of the Welsh Government and operates at arms length. The information you have requested is not held by Welsh Government.

Edwina Hart: Welsh businesses interested in bidding for public service contracts can register on sell2wales.gov.wales to search and receive alerts for new contact and sub-contract opportunites. The site along with businesswales.gov.wales provides practical guidance on tendering for public service contracts, including details of the one-to-one tendering advice services and procurement workshops run by Business Wales. 'How to tender' and 'meet the buyer' workshopos are also held for major procurements projects.

Y Gweinidog Iechyd a Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol (Mark Drakeford): The Health and Care Standards for Wales require organisations to have effective governance arrangements in place to ensure and monitor the provision of safe and effective care (standard 3.1). This includes taking into account all relevant evidence and guidance including NICE quality standards.

A key remit of the NICE Liaison Group – a sub group of, and accountable to the National Quality and Safety Forum – is to encourage a systematic approach to NICE guidance and quality standards in Wales as part of a wider national commitment to continue to improve quality.

The Welsh Government has encouraged health boards to sign up to the UK IBD registry to ensure the collection of patient data to evaluate outcomes and improve patient care and we are monitoring progress.

The Welsh Government has announced £400,000 funding for four pilot schemes to move services for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) out of hospitals and into local communities, making it more convenient for people to access the right care, in the right place, at the right time. The services, in Gwent, Cwm Taf, West Wales and Powys, will be delivered in the community by optometrists and nurses, overseen by an ophthalmologist.

As part of their integrated medium-term plan submissions, health boards will be submitting profiles for improvements in ophthalmology and progress will be monitored by officials through the regular performance management framework.

The Department of Health is currently consulting on proposals for people affected by the contaminated blood scandal, their families and dependents and other interested individuals and organisations. This is an opportunity for people Wales to have their say about how future support should be provided.

16 out of the 22 Local Authorities have broadcast their meetings. Brecon Beacons National Park Authority are also broadcasting their meetings.

The Draft Local Government (Wales) Bill 2016 includes a provision about the electronic broadcasts of meetings of certain local authorities. This would require principal councils to broadcast meetings and to archive those broadcasts, subject to regulations and guidance to be made by Welsh Ministers.

Welsh Ministers would also have the power to make regulations requiring fire and rescue authorities or National Park Authorities to make similar arrangements.

Leighton Andrews: Under the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009, the Auditor General must report each year on how well Welsh Councils are planning for improvement in delivering their services. These reports are published on the Wales Audit Office website. Welsh Government does not provide any support for Councils to publish audits and inspection reports.

The proposals in the Draft Local Government (Wales) Bill and the accompanying consultation paper have been the subject of extensive consultation, the results of which are being considered and will be for further consideration by the next Welsh Government.

Leighton Andrews: According to an exercise conducted by the Local Government and Boundary Commission for Wales, there were just over 8,000 community and town council seats to be filled at the 2012 elections. The Commission found there were more than 900 seats left vacant after the elections. This means that approximately 88% of seats were filled by election, either uncontested or filled by public poll. Many of the vacant seats would have subsequently been filled by co-option, although the Commission does not hold data on this.

Principal councils are obliged to co-opt lay members onto three committees: the standards committee, the audit committee and the scrutiny committee dealing with school education. In these cases, the lay members are full members of the committees with voting rights. Principal councils also have power to co-opt non-voting lay members onto scrutiny committees.

There is no evidence to suggest that there are any difficulties associated with co-options and there are proposals in the Draft Local Government (Wales) Bill 2016 which would allow councils to permit wider voting rights to co-opted scrutiny members.

There are also large numbers of co-opted members on community councils. It reflects the number of vacancies due to insufficient candidates at elections and the power to co-opt in these circumstances. This is an issue for concern and is one of the reasons why the Draft Bill and associated consultation paper include proposals to review our community council structure.

The Welsh Government Diversity in Democracy project works closely with local authorities and community councils through One Voice Wales to provide a mentoring programme for people from under-represented groups to shadow councillors. A project steering group, which includes local authority Heads of Democratic Services and One Voice Wales has worked in partnership to develop and support the mentoring programme, along with publicity to raise awareness of opportunities in local government.

The project has provided effective mentoring training for councillors along with the opportunity for people from under-represented groups to attend training in leadership, personal development and social media skills.

46 people from under-represented groups have accessed the Diversity in Democracy mentoring programme giving them the opportunity to shadow councillors, council officers and attend leadership and development training.

The publicity campaign has targeted equality networks across Wales and as a result the mentoring programme has attracted a wide range of participants with protected characteristics defined by the Equality Act 2010.

Employers from the public, private and third sectors in Wales are also being encouraged to allow their staff access to local question time events with councillors and to promote participation in local government via their intranet and newsletters.

Leighton Andrews: The Electoral Commission is responsible for promoting public awareness of all elections and referenda.

I have funded NUS Wales to run a project in conjunction with the Democracy Club to produce a website in time for the May elections which will enable students and others to find the polling station at which they are registered. The website, 'Where Do I Vote' was launched last week on the 17 March.

The website is dependent on data being supplied by all Electoral Registration Officers. I have written to all of them asking them to support this project. This is an on-going project, and it is not too late for EROs to submit data.

Member Champions of the Diversity in Democracy project have presented to youth councils, colleges and used social media to encourage young people to participate in our mentoring programme. Out of 46 mentors, 18 young people are currently being mentored by councillors across local authorities in Wales. Young councillors have acted as role models at various diversity events and taken part in the development of video clips to enhance the publicity campaign.

Leighton Andrews: The Electoral Commission is responsible for promoting public awareness of all elections and referenda. As part of its report on the 2012 local government elections it undertook public opinion research on why people did or did not vote.

Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 provides for certain matters to be discussed in private, meaning that members of the public and the media are excluded. In the main, these are contractual matters and issues concerning named individuals.

The exemption applies to all council meetings, including those of its executive. The Welsh Government does not collect data on the number of times these provisions are invoked by local authorities.

Leighton Andrews: I consulted on draft directions to the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission to Wales last autumn under provisions in the Local Government (Wales) Act 2015.

The draft directions included a proposed councillor to elector ratio of 1:4000. The decision on the councillor to elector ratio to be included in the final directions to the Commission will be a matter for the new Welsh Government.

The Draft Local Government (Wales) Bill introduces a duty for the first time on local government to encourage the public to have their say on policies developed by councils and the decisions they lead to. It is right that local people, local businesses, delivery partners and the workforce have a say in how public money is spent.

Leighton Andrews:The Electoral Commission is responsible for promoting public awareness of all elections and referenda.

I have provided funding to every Electoral Registration Officer in every local authority towards the costs of sending out a Household Notification Letter which shows who is registered to vote at that particular address. It prompts those who have not yet registered to do so and gives residents an opportunity to check their details on the register are accurate

I have also funded NUS Wales to run a project in conjunction with the Democracy Club to produce a website in time for the May elections which will enable students and others to find the polling station at which they are registered. The website, 'Where Do I Vote' was launched last week on the 17 March.

The website is dependent on data being supplied by all Electoral Registration Officers. I have written to all of them asking them to support this project. This is an on-going project, and it is not too late for EROs to submit data.

Local Authorities possess a range of financial flexibilities which will enable them to minimise the costs and maximise the benefits of reform. A number of reports, including from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and the draft Regulatory Impact Assessment for the draft Local Government (Wales) Bill agree that Local Government reform in Wales will deliver significant savings in the medium term which will outweigh the initial costs.

Leighton Andrews: The Wales Audit Office will have no specific role in assessing Local Authorities under the draft Local Government (Wales) Bill. Instead they will be tasked with contributing to a 'combined assessment' where we propose the main audit, inspection and regulation bodies come together to share existing information and intelligence from existing work to identify emerging themes in order to support the Local Authority to address issues before they become significant problems.

Full consideration of the National Assembly for Wales' legislative competence is an integral part of the policy development and drafting process for all Government Bills. The Minister in charge, on or before introduction, is required to make a declaration that in his or her view the provisions of the Local Government (Wales) Bill would be within the Assembly's legislative competence.